The invention relates to an agricultural working machine, such as a combine harvester or forage harvester, with a feeding assembly arranged at the front for accommodating a header attachment.
An agricultural working machine of the type mentioned is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,810. The combine harvester disclosed there is provided with an inclined feed duct with which is associated, on the front, a crop cutting unit with a large working width. To ensure that the weight of the crop cutting unit need not be fully supported unilaterally on the ground by the vehicle axles of the combine harvester, and to ensure at the same time that a separate header trailer is not necessary, support wheel arrangements are associated with the header attachment on both sides of the inclined feed duct in its rear region. In the shown embodiment, one of the traveling mechanisms has a supporting wheel while the other traveling mechanism has support wheels arranged in pairs. If the header attachment is in the so-called working position, the axles of the support wheels run substantially parallel with the crop cutting unit so that the support wheels associated with these vehicle axles support the header attachment on the ground during the harvesting operation and consequently a portion of the header attachment weight reaches the ground via the support wheels, which ultimately results in some relief of the load from the vehicle axles.
In the so-called non-working position the gauge wheel attachments of the header can be rotated 90° so that the axles bearing the support wheels are now arranged transversely to the header attachment. This enables the support wheels of the header attachment to be used as a system for transporting the header in the non-working position without the necessity of a separate trailer system. To ensure that the support wheels reach this road transport position, the operator of the agricultural working machine must reposition the relevant gauge wheel attachments when the header attachment is raised and refit them in the new position, offset by 90°, on the locking device provided for the new position. Such a conversion process is time-consuming and also requires major physical effort of the person carrying out the rebuilding work. The weight of the gauge wheel attachments are often high and may require several people for the conversion process.